Leonardo DiCaprio Says Original Films Are Harder to Make But “Movies Still Matter — Not Content”

Leonardo DiCaprio was a surprise no-show at tonight’s Palm Springs International Film Awards — the Oscar winner couldn’t make his flight due to restrictive airspace amid a political conflict in Venezuela — but he sent in a recorded message that doubled down on the need for original movies and the theatrical experience.

“I’m stuck on the East Coast,” DiCaprio said in an opening the clip following a tribute from his One Battle After Another co-stars Teyana Taylor and Chase Infiniti. “I wish I was there to celebrate with all of you. I’m truly grateful to be a part of it even from the distance.”

DiCaprio, accepting the Desert Palm Achievement Award during a starry ceremony, then turned his attention to One Battle filmmaker Paul Thomas Anderson. “Thank you for inviting all of us into something bold and original, for never settling and for trusting the process enough to let the work become what it needed to be.”

He continued by recalling when he first fell for storytelling on the big screen. “My father used to take me to the movies at the Vista Theater in Los Angeles. I lived four blocks away and it’s now home to one of the last VistaVision projectors on earth. It was my neighborhood theater, it was where I first felt the power of cinema, and sitting in that dark room with my father, watching something bigger than myself, I realized how deeply movies can affect all of us.”

DiCaprio said they shot One Battle on VistaVision, “not out of nostalgia, but out of a belief, a belief in scale and texture, and in the idea that movies are still meant to be experienced together in a theater. Right now, that belief matters more than ever. Original films are harder to make and harder to protect, but movies still matter. Not content, but cinema. Stories made by people meant to be shared in a dark room in a communal experience.”

Saturday night’s Film Awards hosted fellow honorees like Adam Sandler; Timothée Chalamet; Michael B. Jordan; Miley Cyrus; Ethan Hawke; Amanda Seyfried; Kate Hudson; Rose Byrne; the cast of Joachim Trier’s Sentimental Value; Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein team including Oscar Isaac, Jacob Elordi and Mia Goth; and Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet with Jessie Buckley and Paul Mescal.